Domestic Capital Africa campaign targets US$600bn pension funds for SME growth

Africa’s more than US$600 billion in pension assets could play a greater role in financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), infrastructure, and climate solutions if investors, regulators, and policymakers address the structural barriers limiting domestic investment.

Stakeholders made the call at the official launch of the Domestic Capital Africa (DCA) campaign, organized by Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh), the Africa Impact Investing Group (AIIG), Ghana Venture Capital and Private Equity Association GVCA, the Growth Firms Alliance (GFA) and regional partners on October 8, 2026.

Held under the theme “Mobilizing African Capital for Africa’s Prosperity,” the webinar brought together pension trustees, asset managers, impact investment advisers and regulators to explore ways of directing more African savings towards productive investments on the continent.

The campaign seeks to address the disconnect between the growing pools of institutional capital available in Africa and the financing needs of businesses, particularly SMEs, which continue to face limited access to long-term, appropriately structured funding.

The Board Chair of Impact Investing Ghana, Kwabena Boamah, said the initiative offered an opportunity to bring together stakeholders to develop practical solutions for financing Africa’s development with its own resources.

“Across our continent, institutional investors manage growing pools of capital. The opportunity before us today is to harness more of these resources to finance African businesses, infrastructure, innovation, climate solutions and sustainable development,” he said.

Mr Boamah said the campaign was more than a launch, describing it as a call to action for asset owners, fund managers, entrepreneurs, policymakers, regulators, and development partners to work towards a common goal.

Closing Africa’s SME financing gap

The campaign comes against the backdrop of a significant financing gap facing African businesses despite the substantial resources held by the continent’s institutional investors.

Data presented at the launch indicate that SMEs account for 92 per cent of enterprises in Africa, employ 80 percent of the workforce and generate 70 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Yet these businesses face an estimated US$331 billion financing gap, with many unable to access the patient capital needed to expand operations, invest in technology and create jobs.

At the same time, African pension funds hold more than US$600 billion in assets, while Ghana’spension assets are estimated at about US$7 billion. Less than one percent of Ghana’s pension assets is invested in alternative assets, according to the presentation.

Stakeholders believe that mobilizing even a greater share of these funds into carefully structured investments could help bridge the financing gap while supporting long-term economic growth.

Esther Ndeti, Vice Chair of the Africa Impact Investing Group, said the challenge was to create the market infrastructure, investment vehicles, policy alignment, and trust required to connect available capital with businesses and development priorities.

“Domestic capital mobilization cannot be solved by any single institution. It requires collaboration among different partners and learning from the experiences of different African markets,” she said.

Amma Lartey of Impact Investing Ghana also highlighted the importance of mobilizing domestic capital to support African businesses and development priorities.

Her contribution aligns with the campaign’s objective of connecting institutional investors with investment-ready enterprises, particularly SMEs, to expand access to long-term financing, create jobs and promote sustainable economic growth.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (GVCA), Amma Gyampo, said Africa needed to move beyond the aggregation of capital towards addressing the underlying risks that discouraged institutional investors from financing businesses.

She noted that the continent’s development challenges, including limited economic opportunities for young people, required a more deliberate approach to deploying domestic savings.

“We cannot solve some of these structural issues and crises within our borders by parking the vast majority of our retirement savings in sovereign paper. We need to evolve,” she said.

Ms Gyampo said recent developments, including the launch of the Ci Gaba Fund of Funds, had demonstrated that domestic institutional capital could be successfully aggregated to support businesses.

However, she said the next phase of the effort must focus on developing risk-sharing arrangements and investment structures that meet the requirements of pension trustees and other institutional investors.

“We are ready to invest. They keep telling us this, but they also tell us that they need to see the risk structures and the deals they can actually back,” she said.

Ci Gaba** offers a model for replication**

A key example highlighted at the launch was the Ci GabaFund of Funds, a US$75 million blended-finance initiative designed to mobilize Ghanaian pension capital into SMEs.

The initiative was presented as the first pension-backed fund of funds in West Africa and a potential model for other African markets seeking to channel domestic institutional savings into businesses.

Its target investment areas include agribusiness, healthcare, education, clean energy, financial technology, and enterprises led by women and young people.

The Chief Executive Officer of Ci Gaba Venture Capital Limited and founder and CEO of Savannah Impact Advisory, Hamdiya Ismaila, who manages the Ci Gaba Fund of Funds, said collaboration had been central to the initiative’s development.

She stressed that fund managers must begin by understanding the market’s needs rather than designing investment vehicles before identifying the problems they are intended to solve.

“Collaboration is very important, but you also have to start with validated market needs, not a predetermined fund vehicle,” she said.

Ms Ismaila explained that listening to pension funds and understanding their requirements had informed the design of the Ci Gaba model.

“When you understand the market and validate its needs, you can develop a structure that is fit for purpose,” she said.

She added that investor confidence would depend on demonstrating the ability to manage investments effectively and generate returns.

“Pension money is not charity. It has to be returned, and it has to be returned in style,” she said.

Stakeholders called for regulatory flexibility, technical support, catalytic funding and stronger investor coordination to mobilize domestic capital. They said lessons from the CiGaba Fund could guide similar initiatives across Africa, helping channel pension savings into businesses, job creation and sustainable economic growth while protecting investors’ returns.

The DCA campaign builds on the pioneering work of Impact Investing Ghana and the Ghana Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (GVCA), which showcased insights from Ghana’s private capital and impact investment ecosystems at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year.